According to the post, “Findings from Kline’s Salon Hair Care Brazil 2013 report show that it is not only the soccer ball that’s in the game, but also the professional hair care market with fresh reinforcements. Brazil is the motherland of keratin-based straightening, giving the ‘Brazilian straightening’ name to the procedure, as well as several products. Being a hot trend a few years ago, the market for hair straightening products was severely hurt by issues related to formaldehydrate and its side effects that gave a new, bad image to keratin-based straightening systems. Salons around the globe walked away from straightening procedures, and Brazilian straightening was a phrase that salons and marketers started to avoid.”

However, interest in hair straightening continues to persist, with the post detailing, “Despite the overall pessimism related to the market, supported with many examples from [Kline’s] latest edition of Salon Hair Care Global Series: Market Analysis and Opportunities, the 2013 and beginning of 2014 market for hair straightening products is back in the game with numerous launches of keratin-infused care products as freshly reported by our research team in Brazil.”

Specifically targeted products and growing consumer trust are helping to fuel this renewed interest, Kline says. “The healthy double-digit growth of keratin products on the Brazilian market, as well as other Latin American markets featured in our Salon Hair Care Global Series, such as Mexico and Chile, is fueled by new product launches especially within products made for specific hair types, such as blonde or afro hair,” the post explains. “Another driver behind the growth is slowly restoring consumer confidence, as even smaller, local brands specializing in keratin-based straightening are removing formaldehydrate from their formulations.”

And while the length of this trend is still unassured, it is definitely something to watch for the future—and something to innovate off of. Kline writes, “It is premature to say whether keratin straightening products are permanently back in demand, but we are closely monitoring the Brazilian market to see if its players will give keratin a new life globally. In the meantime, marketers in Europe and North America push their own concepts for keratin straightening. ‘American straightening’ and ‘French straightening systems are just two examples of initiatives taken to give keratin straightening a new face and name. These initiatives, along with growth coming from small markets, such as the UAE, Poland, or South Africa, give a boost to the straightening category, which was in decline in 2012, but back on the growth path in 2013.”